Cool Off on the Hate for the Heat

To the dismay of many fans around the country the Miami Heat aren’t that bad. The great demise of the Heat has been greatly exaggerated. Did you know they only have 24 losses out of 80 games? Do you realize for all their struggles they will still finish in the top 3 in their conference? Yes, they are the new team that everyone loves to hate. Yes they have two guys who before July 8^th were two of the most likeable guys in the league. But none of this factors into how they will play on the court. No matter how you feel about the summer of 2010 people still like LeBron James. They still think he’s funny; people will still buy his shoe, jersey and follow him on twitter. And you can’t hate someone forever. No matter how you feel about the man, that Nike commercial was hilarious. Same goes for Dwayne Wade, you like to like him. For as much as a 6 foot 3 person can he represent the little guy, he plays with a reckless abandon and aggression that people can relate to. But, you can’t hate them forever. This too will pass. Let’s be honest for a minute. The Heat do have problems, however, they do have talent and they will win a lot of games, maybe a championship or two. And winning cures almost everything. When you don’t like someone or something, it becomes easy to continue that feeling when the opposition embraces that hate. LeBron and Dwayne don’t want to be hated; they don’t embrace being the villain. Matter of fact, they hate the fact that you hate them. These 2 great players want nothing more than to be loved and adulated like they have been the last 7 years. And the more they rebel against the hate instead of rolling with it, the harder it will be to dislike them. The Detroit Pistons of the late 1980’s 1990’s loved being the most hated team in America to the point they were called ‘The Bad Boy’s’. The Miami Heat of 2010-2011 doesn’t understand the hate. And for the better part of this NBA season Americas’ hate for them has blinded a lot from seeing how good this team is. Put feelings aside for a second. This team has no consistent point guard or center.  No constant rotation, no above all leader, a young coach with little playoff experience, and they’ve still managed to win 54 games. This team exudes the saying of your never as good as you are at your best or as bad as you are at your worst. Inevitably the Heat will be judged on their performance in May and June. Coincidentally when they heat starts to turn up everyone.